Oral Testimony
The central aim of our project was to collect community voices relating to the story of the Renfrewshire witch hunt of 1697. This has allowed us to create an archive based on oral testimony that present and future generations can enjoy. We have interviewed many local people, and are extremely grateful to them not only for giving us their time, but for sharing their opinions, attitudes, and memories with us.
The stories and the opinions have been of such a rich variety. We have been delighted to hear about childhood memories relating to family members, school years, or later memories of how the story had been told to people in the workplace. We have also been delighted at how many people know and love this story in our community, and hearing their opinions on it has been one of the highlights of our project to date. Listening to memories and stories related to the 1697 witch hunt has also confirmed to us just how much the story is rooted in the consciousness of the local area, where myth and legend combine with facts to create something magical.
We are happy to be able to present a small selection of community voices that we have gathered to date. For the website, we have divided them into specific themes. Please click on any of the boxes below to begin enjoying the voice of the community.
